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Patents-Patent Grant By Private Law-Constitutionality Of Grant After Expiration Of Time Limit, Stanley P. Wagner Jr.

Michigan Law Review

An army officer invented a radar system before World War II but was prevented from patenting it by his superior officers for security reasons. In 1945 his application for a patent was rejected because it was not filed within the time limit embodied in section 102(b) of the Patent Code.1 Congress, in 1950, enacted Private Law 10082 to waive the statutory time limit for the officer's patent application. The act provided that a patent should issue from the 1945 application if the invention .met all the other statutory requirements of the Patent Code. The act provided also that the patent …